


Resonance

by karrenia_rune



Category: Le avventure di Pinocchio | The Adventures of Pinocchio - Carlo Collodi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-10
Updated: 2016-03-10
Packaged: 2018-05-25 23:46:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6214970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A tale of one of the Blue Fairy's very first missions set in Venice, Italy at the turn of the 17th century and about a boy's whose talent for the piano is at a crossroads.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Resonance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Missy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missy/gifts).



Disclaimer: le aventurri di Pinocchio is the original creation of Carlo Collodi and. The boy, Arturo and the Maestro are my own creations.  
Written for Missy in Round 2 Once upon a Time Exchange

When she perches with one leg bent at an acute angle behind her back she is often mistaken for a blue-white heron. One of several that flock to the swathe of cat-tails and willows and reeds that grow close around the lagoon that separates the mainland of Venice and its smaller cousin of Murano. 

The Blue Fairy does not mind this because when the arc of morning sunlight slanting down is just right she can see the roofs and of the city. On sometimes she prefers that transitional period just as one day is turning into another she can the way the moonlight washes everything in an ivory sheen.

It's peaceful just at this time of day when watching the boatmen who run the water taxis to and from the island to the city beginning their day.  
A seagull flapped its wings and emits its shrill cries and she answers back in its own tongue.

She smiles because she thinks that the sea-gulls are much like children: loud, argumentative, but the anger and hurt are often soon forgotten as they move to other things. The seagull is soon joined by others from its rookery as they began to scour for fresh fish.

Among fairies and their fay kin the passage of time from child to the threshold of what they would consider an adult is, on average around two hundred years old.

At one hundred years of age certain members of often consider those belonging to the members of the clan; those they call Root and Branch barely adults and certainly not to be entrusted with any responsibility.

"Of course," muses the Blue Fairy aloud, "responsibility means something entirely different to us than it would to a human or even a dwarf or a troll."

Humans had always fascinated her long before her peers and her elders had told her that among the echelon of fairies that her talents would be best suited into helping humans unlock their artistic potential talent or in some cases nurture it along; that she would become quite fond of them, especially the children.

She shook herself and the movement sends a shiver down her spine and made her wings flutter. She really should get moving. She took off from her perch with her wings spreading out behind her in a fan-shape, flying swiftly across the harbor and into the interior of the city where hew newest charge awaits.

**

The music teacher, who calls himself Maestro Signor Luca stood just on the edge of his peripheral vision with his left arm akimbo and his right arm holding onto the latest invention meant for keeping time, a device called a metronome.

"Arturo, please pay attention," Signor Luca said imploringly. "We have been over this before. Yes, you have talent but if you do not apply yourself, then where will we be?"

Arturo looked up and bit his lip; it hurt and he doesn't know if the pain is from the bitten lip or from the kinks in his back from being locked into one position for so long, but it is there. "Maestro Luca, the boys say, "I need a break."

"As you wish, Signore, however, your parents are paying me to turn you into a concert hall pianist fit to entertain counts and countess and other noble personages." "Certainly, Sir." Arturo is a llow boy of twelve, just on the threshold of being considered no longer a child but not yet an adult. Which means he's been told to stop moping about like a sullen brat. He cannot help it he thinks and he tries to infuse as much dignity as he can into his withdrawal. 

It seems to work for Maestro Luca merely sighs and waves, saying, "Go on."  
*** And with that Arturo returns to his room and flops down on his stomach on top of his bed pausing just long enough to remove his shoes.

His eyes closed and he falls asleep. Every so often, in the middle of the night, he has a nightmare where the black and white keys turn into teeth trying to snatch and bite his fingers off. 

The nightmare fades as soon as it comes, but nonetheless, Arturo cannot shake the feeling that it means something. He resolves to tell his parents in the morning that it means that he no longer wishes to play piano and that that services of the Maestro are no longer required.

***

The Blue Fairy only gets lost once, the roofs of this city look different up close than they do from a distance. That being said they also seem to be constructed from similar building materials, most of which she does not have the words to describe. 

Finding the correct dwelling place, at last, she turns herself into a ray of blue-white moonlight and slides in through the half-open window. 

"Arturo," she whispers the boy's name. "Arturo, wake up."

The boy rolls over and smiles in his sleep for this dream that comes to him now is much more pleasant; it reminds him of his mother or his grandmother's voice when they used to tuck him at bedtime and read to him.

"Wake up," the Blue Fairy says more firmly. "I need to speak with you."

"What? Who's there!" he asks. "I think you need to see this with your own eyes."

Arturo comes fully awake and when he sees the Blue Fairy. This time he rubs his eyes again and pinches himself to make certain that what his eyes behold is really there.

"Who are you?" he wonders, not thinking to question that he could actually be having this conversation with someone the size of the water pitcher on his end-table.

"I am the Blue Fairy," she says. And I've been watching you for a while now. You play beautifully," she remarks.

"Thanks, I think. But I don't want to play anymore."

"Why? inquires the Blue Fairy, "The music is beautiful and you are the one whose talent coaxes it out of the instrument." 

She begins to hum a few bars of the strain of a musical composition she heard when she had been searching for his home.

"What's it to you?" 

"You see, it's my magic, the kind that is unseen and often overlooked. Please, Arturo. I realize that you are frustrated and even angry."  
"If I am angry, whose fault is that?" Arturo snaps.

The Blue Fairy holds up a pair of hands the size of tea-cups and while it is within her power to assume different sizes it never occurs to her in this instance, and she backs away her gossamer wings fluttering behind her as she moves back up to the windowsill.

Arturo comes out of his anger and his blue funk long enough to realize that he has frightened this delicate-boned, kindly creature and his entire demeanor alters radically; sheepishly he apologizes, "I am so sorry! Look, I did not mean to frighten you. Please, come back!"

She does so, one she accepts his apology, and it simply would not do to give up on either him or her mission. "There, that's better."

"Please, do not give up on your music. Do you like playing?"

"Of course, but they all make it so hard for me." "Then tell them, let them, whoever they are, that perhaps you need to come at the music from another approach, or that you need a break, or maybe you just need a little magic?"

"Magic?"

"I can help you with that last, human entanglements are much trickier," says the Blue Fairy. "But you there's something vitally important that you must be aware of if you wish to proceed."

"What is it?" Arturo asks, intrigued in spite of himself.

"Yes, believing is the first step required for the magic to work, and you must believe it deep in your heart of hearts, and just as importantly you must believe in yourself. Can you do that?"

"Yes! Arturo replies. "Wait a minute, I never learned your name."

"You may call me the Blue Fairy," but keep that to yourself or to those you trust. Magic is powerful but belief is more so. Can you promise me that you will remember that?" 

"I promise," And Arturo realized just then that he means that last with every fiber of his being. He does not know if it will carry over into his playing but he has decided that he will keep playing piano and maybe tell Maestro that he's ready for more challenging pieces. 

The Blue Fairy smiles and then withdraws before the boy is aware of her leaving. She will have to check in on him infrequently, but this is a good beginning. And in fact, she wants to hear more of his playing, the strands echoing through her mind as she returns to her home island.


End file.
